Buffalo Grove fighter Felice Herrig gets her shot on reality TV

She calls herself a "girly girl," which was two strikes against her in the mind of her boxing coach.

Shannon States trains boxers, "manly men," not pretty young blonds who spend their days in a beauty salon like Felice Herrig did back in 2005.

But Herrig kept coming back to the Elgin Boxing Club, and States begrudgingly continued to train her. Pretty soon, he looked forward to their sessions.

"I didn't want to train female fighters because there's too much that comes along with that. But she kept coming and kept coming, and what can you do if a fighter wants to work with you and keeps showing up?" States said.

"The first time I saw her spar with the guys I knew then, OK, I am willing to work with her because she gave it all she had. Her work ethic is unbelievable."

If the rest of the country can be convinced, the 24-year-old Buffalo Grove native and world-class kick boxer/Muay Thai fighter could become a household name. The 5-foot-4, 120-pound Herrig won three U.S. championship belts, a North American title and a world championship between 2005 and '08 before making the transition to the highly popular sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) this year.

Her butt-kicking skills and girly-girl looks have made her one of the best-known female fighters in America, but despite the popularity of MMA, it does not offer a female division. At least not yet.

"There aren't enough serious, good female fighters," Herrig said. "Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of girls out there who can fight. But you would need a lot of weight classes, and there would need to be a ton of tremendous fighters for that."

Fortunately for Herrig and 15 other female fighters from around the country, there is a three-letter organization that believes there's an audience for serious fights between women. Later this month, an NBC camera crew will come to Buffalo Grove to begin filming Herrig for a reality show called "Ultimate Women's Combat."

Then Herrig will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., where she will spend eight to 10 weeks battling it out with the other 15 contestants. Herrig also appeared on the reality show "Fight Girls," in 2007, which culminated with a world-championship victory in Thailand, fought for Chuck Norris' World Combat League on the Versus network in '07-'08, and co-hosted an MMA show, "Combatwire," on CLTV (which, like this newspaper, is owned by Tribune Co.) in '08.

"This is a huge deal," Herrig said. "NBC, that is mainstream. I think it will help females in the sport a lot."

Herrig grew up watching her brother and step-father practice martial arts, but she didn't get involved until she was 18. After graduating Buffalo Grove High School in 2003, Herrig took a job in a salon in Wheeling and became obsessed with kickboxing and Muay Thai fighting.

She lost her first two fights before taking a year off to train, and her only loss in 25 succeeding kickboxing or Muay Thai fights came to "a Japanese champion in Japan, and I was giving up 7 pounds," Herrig said.

Herrig quit her job in the salon and turned pro in 2007, and her reputation as a stand-up fighter preceded her to MMA, which combines all forms of fighting.

Her first two opponents spent the entire 15-minute fights clutching, grabbing and wrestling, and Herrig dropped a split decision each time, putting her combined professional record at 8-3.

She has been training with Harper College assistant wrestling coach Kyle Boore to turn her weakness into a strength.

"I just feel like I was born to fight. Yeah, that sounds cliche. But it's the truth," Herrig said.